I just turned on my lamp here in the studio. It’s 1130am. The sun is very much up, and when I turned the lamp on I barely noticed. It made me think about the stark difference between turning on a light in the daytime, verses turning it on at night. When you turn a light on in the night, it pierces the darkness, it illuminates the room. It changes every object it touches from one that is hidden and barley seen to fully illumated. 

Since I was a young kid sitting in church I have heard that as those who posses the eternal light of God in us, or perhaps better known, us Christians, that we were meant to be the ‘light of the world.’ What I have to admit, is that often times my light shines during the day, and although it adds light, I feel like God calling us to be the light of the world would imply that its lighting something up that actually needs to be lit.

2000 years ago, when Jesus was hanging out with people who were outside of the ‘in’ crowd, those spiritual, ‘we have it all together’ people. Those who perhaps were seeking, unsure of the role God could or should play in their lives, while this was all going down, the ‘in’ crowd came up to Jesus and starting hating because he was with ‘sinners.’ Jesus replied its not the well that need a doctor, but the sick. I hope he said it super sarcastically and added ‘buddy’ at the end. “The sick are the ones that need a doctor buddy.” And then he gave them a little fake smile. The religious people reading that will probably say that Jesus would never be sarcastic, and they may right, but whatever buddy.

In the same way that I have to admit that I have a long way to go in the area of sharing the incredible work that God has done in my life, that he has given me hope, and love that I could never truly find anywhere else. Love from my creator. Direction from the one who designed me, and therefore knows how I am best set up to live. It’s pretty great. It sucks that I usually just share that with people already in the light. 

I guess what I’m getting at is if you have this ‘light’ inside you, lets all admit that beautiful lights in the night are way cooler than lights during the day, as well as more purposeful. And if you put yourself more in the camp of the people Jesus was talking to who were the ‘outsiders,’  what Christian are big fans of calling ‘sinners,’ as if they themselves have it all togehter. I’d just say God is pretty cool. And he thinks you’re pretty great too. And he’s pretty much the greatest doctor, for any and every ailment, not just for our bodies but for the whole of us. And feel free to hit me up and we can talk about it, and sorry if I havent done a better job of telling you how much of an incredible thing I have found. 

Much love everyone.

Things pile up. The list of thing to do in the day, the responsibilities that simply have to be done as soon as possible, and the things you long to do, both those productive activities producing something tangible and those things you simply want to do because of the joy it breaks, a walk on the beach, a coffee with a friend, a movie out, a book accompanied by a cup of tea. Each of these things are constantly fighting a battle for your time and energy. Your life is a battle ground, and you are the commander, desperate to win every battle, only to find that as you give attention to certain battlefields, other areas lose out. And so certain areas emerge victorious, but are those areas the ones we want to win? The people we want to have strong relationships with, the things we love, even God Himself, are these things losing to the other things that must be done? Are the urgent things reigning over the important ones? This is all to easy to have happen as the constant demands of life invade us. I’ve struggled with this often, what I’ve come up with is the decision that the important things that I have been called to, and committed to cannot, and will not overwhelm the urgent things that need to, and will always be present needing doing. I have 11 things on my list of things to do today, 9 important emails to respond to, and what am I doing? Journaling, and then I’m going to spend more time reading God’s word and worshipping. And then when I’m done with that I am going to work on my calling as a writer/musician. I am going to write music and practice. Not because I have a deadline to do so, in fact no one has even asked me to, that is besides my creator, besides that thing deep inside of me that for years as burned inside me to make a difference in music and art that brings God the attention He deserves. And then, and only then, will I tackle my to do list. But not all night, because I am going to get some down time with friends tonight, because if I don’t I will go crazy, I will get more stressed, and life isn’t meant to be just work all the time. Otherwise God wouldn’t have created beaches, sunsets, and laughter, they wouldn’t exist.

Something struck me hard during class yesterday. It was something I had known for ages that I learned just now. You ever have that happen? Something just hits you in a new light? I knew it, but it struck me, I am an extravert. I actually really need to be around people. Like really. I need to be around people to be really happy. If I spend too much time alone, I’m just not at my best. It’s how God made me. So I need to get with it. I guess I’ve just been looking at it like, yea if I hang with people cool, but I never really put any effort into making it happen, I guess I need to. I need to function the way God made me. That means I need to be healthy and eat right, that means I need to get the right amount of sleep, that means lots of things that are often not considered very ‘spiritual.’ But they are, because it’s the way God made us, God wants us to live in the way he designed us to, that means I shouldn’t have sex with someone I just met, and it also means I shouldn’t fill my body with junk food, because I am living out of God’s intention for me. In the same way that my future marriage will suffer if I sleep around, my current and future relationships and tasks will suffer if I am living on not enough sleep every night, and functioning at less than full capacity. I need to be well all the way through, physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. God doesn’t just say, “Your whole life can be screwed up as long as your spiritual side is strong.” That doesn’t even make sense. My spiritual side cannot function correctly if my other areas are holding me down. I am one person, God cares for, God died for, me as a whole, every part. 

You know you’re on vacation when you’ve got time to watch flag football w @repentrepent (Taken with Instagram at The arsenal)

The face of a man who said. “Human Clay is the first album I ever bought. And the best I’ve ever had.” (Taken with instagram)

6am Prayer meeting! (Taken with Instagram at The Chapel)

The Studio (Taken with Instagram at House 14)

I really wanna get back to the basics. I really wanna rediscover my first love. I really wanna see miracles. I wanna see Gods presence move in ways it’s so undeniable that it’s nothing of us, the music we play, the flow of the service, our own good ideas, I wanna see God move so powerfully that it’s undeniable Him. I wanna see people that are just coming in saved. I wanna see people that have been around ages stirred up. I want to see a revolution of love. I really wanna get back to the basics.

Reactions to my stache. Guy vs Girl (Taken with instagram)